Medvedev hopes Obama’s visit to Russia will help intensify economic relations

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he is hopeful that U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Russia scheduled for September will help intensify economic relations between the two countries. At the meeting with businessmen within the International Industrial Trade Fair INNOPROM currently underway in Yekaterinburg, Medvedev said: “I hope that the upcoming arrival in Russia by the U.S. president and the future trip to the country by Vice-President Joe Biden, as well as the work between the governments and the corresponding agencies in the economic sphere will yield its results.” “Political contacts are much more intensive and fruitful than economic ones,” the Russian prime minister said. Trade turnover between Russia and the United States and mutual investments raise at a rapid rate, he added. For his part, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin has put forth a proposal to hold several events with the involvement of businessmen.